American Girl Got It Wrong
My daughter cuddled up to my side peering over my shoulder at the drawings of the “inside” boy parts. When I started rattling off names like seminal vesicle and vas deferans, I could sense that it was time to lighten up before the “big reveal”.
We had embarked on our homeschool version of the birds and the bees since official school lessons start next week. I switched over to the American Girl classic “The Care and Keeping of Us” so we could talk about deodorant and bras instead of male anatomy.
It’s been a couple of years since I looked at this book, but I have to say, American Girl got it wrong. Their language around weight and food isn’t ok. Let’s break it down with some direct quotes from the book (unfortunately this is just a small sampling of the MANY erroneous statements).
"We've been getting that chicken takeout a lot. Can we think of something else that's healthy, but would be a change? How about some healthy Mexican food? We haven't had that in a while".
The main problem with this quote is that food is being categorized as "healthy" and "unhealthy". Since when is all Mexican food or chicken considered healthy or unhealthy? At our house, we teach that all foods have value and that there isn’t a hierarchy of foods. We certainly don’t imply that an entire culture’s food isn’t “good” for you in any way either.
"Did you ever wish you could change your body? I wish I could. I'm so unhappy being overweight and I want to do something fast".
I’ve talked about this before, but the term “overweight” is used by the medical industry to pathological and medicalize people in larger bodies. In Lindo Bacon’s Health at Every Size book, they teach us that size doesn’t determine our health. This quote also implies that weight determines our happiness. Weight is a physical characteristic like height and eye color, but unfortunately, our fat phobic society will have you believe that thin = happy and fat = unhappy. At our house, we teach that all bodies are good bodies and that our happiness isn’t tied to our looks.
"A weight loss diet that includes all the nutrients and calories a body needs is OK, as long as losing weight will lead to better health. Fad diets that force people that force people to eat just one type of food or to cut too many calories or an entire food category (such as carbs or fat) never make people healthier. Weight loss diets are safest when supervised an adult".
WHOA, WHOA, whoa! You've completely lost all credibility with this final quote, American Girl author Dr. Cara Natterson. My head just about exploded after reading this paragraph which basically teaches girls that it's ok to diet as long as you find the "right" or "healthy" diet. THERE IS NO DIET THAT IS SAFE OR EFFECTIVE for anybody, especially growing pre-teen and teenage girls who need an enormous amount of energy to support their changing bodies. Did you know that the number one predictor of weight gain is starting a diet? If that’s not enough, the number one predictor of disordered eating is also dieting!
While the book has some redeeming qualities, the information in this book about food and body is false and dangerous. Our copy is now resting in our recycling bin because I don't even it want it to get passed onto someone else.
American Girl, we need to do better. Our children deserve more. I highly recommend Sonya Renee Taylor’s book instead called Celebrate Your Body. This book does a perfect job emphasizing individuality, body positivity, and how to navigate the puberty years.
I’ve gotta get back to class. I’m expecting the reaction to the "big reveal" to involve a lot of “ewwwww” and “that’s sooooo gross”. Wish me luck.
xoxo, 
